Purpose. To assess epidemiology, treatment patterns, and outcomes of metastatic soft tissue sarcoma (mSTS) patients in USA community oncology practices. Methods. This retrospective, descriptive study used US Oncology’s iKnowMed electronic health records database. Adults (≥18 years) with mSTS and at least two visits between July 2007 and June 2010 were included. Key outcomes were practice patterns, overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS). Results. 363 mSTS patients (174 treated and 189 untreated) met the prespecified exclusion/inclusion criteria. The most common subtypes were leiomyosarcoma ( ; 29%), liposarcoma ( ; 11%), and synovial sarcoma ( ; 3%); the remainder ( ; 57%) comprised 27 histologic subtypes. Treated patients were younger and had lower ECOG scores; 75% and 25% received first-line combination or monotherapy, respectively. Median OS of treated and untreated patients was 22 and 17 months, respectively, and 29 months in patients with the three most common subtypes. Before controlling for effects of covariates, younger age and lower ECOG scores were associated with better OS and PFS. Conclusion. This study provides insights into mSTS epidemiology, treatment patterns, and outcomes in a large community-based oncology network. These results warrant further studies with larger cohorts. 1. Introduction Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare mesenchymal tumors that account for 1% of adult cancers [1–7] and comprise over 50 different histologic subtypes that differ in pathogenesis and outcomes [1–3, 6, 7]. Collectively, they are associated with a mortality rate of over 4,000 patients per year [2]. The treatment of STS is dependent upon several factors, including histologic subtype, disease stage, and patient performance status; the treatment options include surgery, radiotherapy, and/or chemotherapy [1, 3, 6–10]. Although localized resected disease can often be cured, the prognosis of patients with metastatic STS (mSTS) remains poor, with median survival of approximately one year [1, 3, 6, 11–15]. Good prognostic factors for mSTS include younger patients with good performance status and low tumor grade [3, 6, 16]. Most of our insights regarding factors that influence the outcomes following chemotherapy in mSTS have been obtained mainly from clinical trials [11–14, 16]. The purpose of this study was to gain an improved understanding of the “realworld” epidemiology as well as treatment patterns and outcomes of mSTS in the setting of community oncology clinics. 2. Methods Data was obtained from the McKesson Specialty Health (MSH)/US
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